


Springtime

by TheMomeRath



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Based on a Tumblr Post, Canon Related, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 03:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1842838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMomeRath/pseuds/TheMomeRath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a couple years since the Battle of the Nightmares. Winter has come and gone, and Jamie has grown up just a bit. Springtime is here, and it's hard enough to keep from going outside when it's just so beautiful all the time.</p><p>But History has a habit of repeating itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Springtime

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fuocogo](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=fuocogo).



> Even though it says "major character death" up there, I promise I won't make it too painful.

Spring.

Jamie loved the season. Or course, it meant Jack would be on his way to bring the winter somewhere else, but he couldn’t help but be enthralled by the birth of the new season- and after all, spring meant Easter, and with it came new life.

The children enjoyed the last weeks of winter while they stayed, building armies of twig-armed snowmen, collapsing the melting snowforts they had worked so hard on through the months, and skating on the still-thick-enough ice, despite their parents’ protests.

They knew winter would end soon, so they had their fun while it could last.

“Hurry up, Jamie! It’s not gonna get any colder!”

“All right, all right! I’m coming already!”

As Jamie and Sophie ran to the pond where they had spent so many happy hours over so many happy years, carrying figure-skates over their shoulders, Sophie’s squeals and Jamie’s laugher only served to make warmer the already sunny skies. As soon as the pair reached the bottom of the hill, they immediately sat to trade their shoes for the old ice skates.

“This is gonna be so much fun!” Sophie said with an ecstatic grin as she slipped her foot into the white shoe. Fumbling with the laces for a few seconds, her smile turned to a growling frown and she flopped onto her back exasperatedly. “This is so hard! How did you learn to tie your shoes?”

Jamie grinned as he secured his own knot. “It’s not too hard, Soph. Want me to show you?” He reached over, grabbed her boot, and held it between his knees as he walked her through the knot. “See? You make a loop with your fingers, then loop them around again…” He pulled the loops and tightened the knot. “And there you go!”

Sophie stared at the knot. “You make it look so easy.”

And she tried. She tried several times with the other skate, but only succeeded in making a tangled mess which Jamie then had to untie. Eventually, he gave in to tying the other skate, and they stepped onto the ice.

“Oh, look! You can see the fishies!” Sophie knelt excitedly on the ice and followed a particularly big fish with her eyes. “He’s so cute!”

Jamie looked over. “Hey, Sophie, that’s pretty cool! You should probably stay close to me, though, that ice looks pretty thin.” He held out his hand and smiled at her.

Sophie bounced up quickly. “All right!” She wobbled over to her brother, her ever-present fairy wings flapping on her back with each step. “Look at me! I’m like a real fairy!”

Jamie laughed as he took her hand. “Yeah you are.” He supported her as they skated around the tiny pond, each enjoying the spring air and bright sky above them.

When Sophie felt comfortable enough to skate on her own, she let go of Jamie’s hand and made her way around the pond. A little less experienced, her footsteps were more unsure and her falls more frequent, but she got back on her feet each time, brushing shaved ice off her body with a smile.

Jamie kept an eye on her the whole while, because he knew that if his sister got hurt, he would be the one in trouble. He saw her fall and made sure he saw her get back up each time- except the last.

He saw the terror in her eyes as he heard the ice crack. “Sophie! Are you okay?”

She shook her head. “I mean- yeah. But I think the ice is cracking.” She stood up knees shaking, and looked down to see the spiderwebbing cracks spreading around her. “Jamie…? I can see the fish here…”

Jamie skated slowly toward her and saw the quickly growing cracks. “Okay, uh… Don’t move. I can go get mom.” Fear creeped into his small voice. “Just don’t move.”

“No!” She swung her head up to look at him with wide green eyes. “I don’t want to stay here alone!”

He blinked and shook his head. “Right. Um.” He swallowed. “can you see a spot where the ice is thicker?”

Her eyes wandered across the surface of the frozen pond. “No… Jamie, I’m scared.”

“Don’t worry, Soph, there’s one behind you! You’ll be just fine.”

She turned her head, causing the ice to crack just a little more. “But it’s so far away!”

He took a cautious step toward her. “Shh, don’t worry. It’s not so bad.” The distance between the two narrowed- seven feet. Six. Five. “I’m going to push you over there, okay? I’m not trying to be mean, I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

Sophie nodded, tears in her eyes. “Okay.”

“You ready?” He waited for her nod, then smiled to her. “Okay. Three… Two...One…”

On zero, he lunged for her, pushing her over so she landed with a solid sounding thunk on the thinker ice, but Jamie’s larger frame was too much for the already fragile surface. As he plunged under, he heard his sister call out. “NO!”

As his face hit the water, he breathed in, surprised by the cold, but only swallowed a lungful of icy water as he slipped forward underneath the ice shelf. The last thing he saw before the world went black was his sister’s fists pounding against the ice above his face, trying to break through.

~~~

Winter came around again, and Jack Frost froze the ponds over again, but this year the parents were more reluctant to let their children ice skate there. “Poor little Jamie; He should have been more careful,” they said. “It’s lucky that his sister didn’t go under, too.”

Jack noticed that Sophie didn’t smile as much when she saw him this time- and he realized why when Jamie didn’t come running when he rested at the boy’s window.

His own tears were not absent even when he tried to play with the other children- his first believer, gone… Lost because of Jack’s own icy winter.

“I should have stayed just a little longer,” He spat bitterly to himself, surveying the pond. “It’s my fault.”

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see who it was, but bright sunlight blocked his view. He shielded his face with one hand and looked up into a familiar face.

“If you never leave, Spring can’t come.” The boy smiled. “Spring means new life, and that’s what I am.” Jamie wrapped his arms around the surprised winter spirit’s shoulders quickly and happily. “I missed you, Jack.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a piece of art by fucogo found at the link below.
> 
> http://fuocogo.tumblr.com/post/37488936775/history-has-a-habit-of-repeating-itself


End file.
